Opinion

It's spring training, so everyone can dream. And the biggest dream shared in the early days of New York Yankees camp was the one about Michael Pineda.

It's OK to admit you're excited to watch the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox or any other high-profile team this spring. We all are, man. Just let it out.

But for anyone who wants to sound like a real baseball know-it-all around the nearest water cooler, we happen to have a list of under-the-radar clubs that can steal the show in spring training.

We wait all winter for pitchers and catchers to report to Florida and Arizona. Then, at long last, they do—and we wait some more.

We wait for the final free-agent pieces to fall off the board, for any remaining trades to be consummated, for injury updates and for exhibition games to start. Then we wait for the contests that actually count.

That's a whole lot of waiting. Which means a diversion is in order. 

Call the Dexter Fowler re-signing a fantasy-turned-reality for the Chicago Cubs, because any hope that the team could entice Fowler to come back for the 2016 season didn’t seem possible a short while ago.

Even out of context, the numbers were fine. Matt Harvey finished 2015 with the sixth-lowest ERA in the National League (2.71), with a strikeout an inning. He had 10 starts where he didn't allow an earned run, and three others where he allowed only one.

The 2015 MLB season gave us one of the deepest and most productive rookie classes in recent memory, as a number of first-year players became major contributors on the fantasy baseball landscape.

Did the Baltimore Orioles improve, for the moment, by adding outfielder Dexter Fowler and right-hander Yovani Gallardo?

Yes.

Did they improve enough to become a legitimate contender and to justify the draft picks they surrendered?

Not necessarily.

In a league where overpaying for talented players is commonplace, the Chicago White Sox broke that trend when they acquired All-Star third baseman Todd Frazier from the Cincinnati Reds back on Dec. 16.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida — Sunshine and grapefruit…

The San Francisco Giants spent $220 million on Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto this winter. And they have Madison Bumgarner, tree-chopping stud and postseason demigod.